Who is your local hospital hero?

The Trust that runs the Lister, QEII and Hertford County Hospitals, as well as the Mount Vernon Cancer Centre, is asking patients and the public to make their nominations for their annual staff awards.

Each year the Trust’s Celebration of Excellence awards are used to mark the achievements and hard work of its staff. This year they will include, once again, a public nomination category.

Commenting on the awards and specifically the public nomination category, the Trust’s chief executive, Nick Carver, said:

“We started this category because we felt our patients and their families would like the opportunity to let the teams caring for them know how they feel about the care and commitment they receive from our staff. The response in previous years has been superb and the winning teams valued their awards more highly because their nominations came from members of the public.”

“There are no set criteria for this award as we know that it is not always what someone said or did, but how they made their patients feel that is important.”

People can nominate an individual or a team. It might be for something specific they did to help them or it could be for how a member of staff treated them, which made them feel better. For example a friendly receptionist who always makes people feel welcome or a nurse who held their hand when they needed it most.

Nominations are now open until 19 June 2015; the awards themselves will take place on 25 September 2015.

Entries should include the name of the individual or team, which hospital they work in and details of why they should win. The name, address and phone number of the person making the nomination should be included in case they need to be contacted for more information. Every nomination will be ready by members of the Trust’s own judging panel, which includes the chief executive and chairman as well as a mix of other staff.